Jesus: Why did God become a man?
Because Jesus is like us in that he was tempted, yet unlike us in that he never did sin, he can help us when we are tempted and show us how to escape sinful situations. Hebrews 2:17–18 says:
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
In conclusion, Jesus alone can mediate between God and us because he alone is fully God and fully man and thereby able to perfectly represent both God and man. Regarding the vital importance of both Jesus’ humanity and divinity, theologian Jonathan Edwards says:
First, I would consider Christ’s taking upon him our nature to put himself in a capacity to purchase redemption for us. This was absolutely necessary, for though Christ, as God, was infinitely sufficient for the work, yet to his being in an immediate capacity for it, it was needful that he should not only be God, but man. If Christ had remained only in the divine nature, he could not have purchased our salvation; not from any imperfection of the divine nature, but by reason of its absolute and infinite perfection; for Christ, merely as God, was not capable either of obedience or suffering.1
In other words, to redeem man Christ first had to become a man. This is precisely what the Bible teaches: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”2 This verse reveals the threefold reasoning as to why Jesus’ incarnation is of such great comfort. (1) There is one God for all peoples, times, and places. (2) There is one mediator between sinful humanity and the one sinless God. This mediator remedies the sin problem that divides people and God so that there can be salvation and reconciliation. (3) Christ Jesus alone can mediate between God and man because he alone is the God-man.
Is there anyone or anything in your life that you are wrongly trying to use to make you closer to God? Is there anyone or anything in your life that is pushing you further away from God?